Give Me Courage (Give Me Series #4)

35 - Malia

The sight of my house underneath the light of the crescent moon brought a wave of comfort through my entire body when Aiden parked in our driveway. Exhaustion heavily weighed down on my body like two cinderblocks were tied to each one of my limbs.

The mere act of walking up to my front door and up the stairs to the second floor barely left me with enough energy to twist my bedroom door knob and step inside. All I wanted was to fall into a deep sleep before my alarm went off in the early morning when I needed to meet Lydia at the Sheriff's Station with Stiles.

She spent the majority of her night at her family's lake house, determined to discover more about her grandmother, which ultimately ended with Lydia believing she could potentially still be alive to this day. Her messages blew up the group chat with a detailed explanation of how her grandmother could be aiding the Benefactor. However, after the third text bubble, my eyes refused to focus on the small letters.

The overhead light in my bedroom temporarily blinded me as I flipped the switch on with my right hand. I blinked through the brightness until my eyes adjusted and I noticed a figure near my bookshelf.

"Holy shit!" I gasped.

The back of my right shoulder slammed against the door frame when I jumped back, overwhelmed with fear.

Malia halfheartedly turned around with a piece of paper pressed between her fingertips. A stoic expression was present on her facial features with her focus solely locked on the paper in front of her chest.

A hand pressed over my chest while my heart rapidly beat underneath it, startled by her random appearance in my bedroom at the late hour. The atmosphere of the room was filled with a tension I couldn't name yet.

I hesitantly stepped further into my own room and tossed my jacket on the edge of my bed. "We really could have used your help tonight," I tentatively told her. "Where were you?"

"Talking to Peter."

Her answer stopped me in my tracks. That was one answer I didn't expect to receive from her. My eyes squinted at the side of her face, suspiciously. The suspicion didn't arise because I assumed she was lying to me. No, I was more concerned with Peter talking to her without anyone else in the pack around. He was a well known manipulator.

"Was that really a good idea?" I asked.

The piece of paper in her hands caught the light above our heads and resembled a part of the Deadpool list with names and numbers printed in black ink across the white sheet. I had no doubt the paper contained her real name; Malia Hale.

"If he can help me find my mother, I don't think I care," Malia softly responded with a slight shrug of her shoulders.

My face softened at her genuine curiosity. There wasn't a single part of me that blamed Malia for wanting to find her biological mother. I simply feared her going through Peter wasn't the best way to do so. Peter Hale wasn't someone who could be trusted. He always had a secret ulterior motive.

"Look," I began and stepped further into the room until there was roughly three feet left between us. "I know you want to find your mother and I'm not going to stop you from doing so—"

Her face faltered before she regained her blank expression.

"— but I don't know if talking to Peter about it is the best idea," I finished. My head tilted to the side as I analyzed her facial expressions. "I need you to remember that even though you're related to him, you're not like him."

She dropped the paper down to her side, clenched between her fingers and turned to face me for the first time. "Maybe I am."

I swiftly closed the remaining distance between us and placed my hands on her shoulders. "You're not," I reassured her. "I know Peter and you're nothing like him."